The Thunder Creek series of flies was created by fisherman and commercial tyer Keith Fulsher of Eastchester, NY. The fly was developed because he felt the standard minnow tying method of a large thread head with painted eyes didn’t properly represent the naturals. Keith’s reverse tied bucktails added detail and allowed for a variety of ...Continue reading […]

“The solution to any problem — work, love, money, whatever — is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be.” -John Gierach John Gierach’s Little Brown Trout is a classic for both bass and trout anglers. The bucktail was developed alongside the Gierach Special bucktail. John originally tied this ...Continue reading

The long-awaited book from authors Graydon Hilyard and Leslie Hilyard has been announced and is ready to hit shelves on December 1st, 2018. “Herbert L. Welch: Black Ghosts and Art in a Maine Guide’s Wilderness”, documents the infamous Maine outdoorsman and his many talents. In addition to boeing a talented fly tyer, Herbie is well-known ...Continue reading […]

I first saw this fly pattern years ago while reading an article on GlobalFlyFisher written by Mike Martinek. Mike stated that he preferred to fish the Liggett Special over the Mickey Finn and claimed it as one of his all-time favorite bucktails. The bucktail was named for one Mr. Liggett, a Hathaway Shirt Co foreman. ...Continue reading

This is another post for those of you hunting for some new streamers for your collection. We found a few nice specimens from Mike Martinek, Jim Warner, and Larry Leight. Larry Leight Streamer Flies Larry Leight West Trout Brook You can check out the rest of the streamers he has on offer here – Larry ...Continue reading

One of my favorite stillwater patterns is the old Doc Spratley. Introduced to me in British Columbia some years ago, it is one of the very best searching patterns to be found on B.C. lakes. Black, green and red are the popular body colors, and you can’t walk in a shop in the province without finding a bunch of Sprats. In larger sizes, it’s fished for steelhead.

Tying some Green Butt Skunk Speys recently (similar body construction), I decided to tie a couple of the “Spey” versions of my old B.C.favorite:

General Recipe:

Hook: Partridge 10/1 , #1 (as pictured)

Tag (optional): Flat silver tinsel

Tail: Guinea, real, or grizzly hackle fibers

Rib: Silver tinsel

Body: Fluorescent green floss (optional) followed by black seal’s fur or similar

Hackle: Black (omitted on trout version)

Throat/Collar: Guinea, teal, or grizzly hackle

Wing: Ringneck pheasant tail fibers

Head: Peacock herl

A peacock butt is a nice variation, and a few strands of peacock herl added to the wing can add a little color.

Try ’em in trout sizes for your next northwest lake outing and fancy things up a bit if you want to swing one for steelhead. Enjoy!

When reading some of the classic works of the salmon fly authors, one will run into the Phillips scale (popular in Blacker’s time, for example). How do those sizes equate with modern sizes… what the heck size is a #7?!

Fear no more. Here are the equivalencies from Farlow’s Hook Guide with the modern scale, the Phillips scale, and the length of hook following (do not include the eye when measuring hook length):

For those who know me or have followed this blog for some time, my latest version of the Claret Brown will come as no surprise:

The Latest Claret Brown

Yes, my love of this crazy, sleek hook continues. This is a size 6, and I’ve taken the sneck out of the bend. I also grind the tips to make them more receptive to a gut eye.

I’ve varied the pattern in a few ways: embossed silver tinsel rib, added the jungle cock sides, and made a fur head. I like wool/fur heads of some of the old classics, and I had planned to use orange on this a la the Dallas fly, but settled on black.

The hackle is schlappen, stripped on one side, and the wings are true cinnamon turkey.

And here’s an orange head version. Somebody please stop me…

Previous Spey Plate flies that I worked up a Mustad-Chestertown version for my collection include The Pitcroy Fancy and the Dallas Fly:

I’ve been working on a few flies for my Spey Plate ’16 contribution. I usually tie multiple versions with material variations, different hook sizes/styles, and perhaps a different tying method or two, and this year is no different. First, let’s re-state Kelson’s recipe with the note that in Salmon Flies, he mentioned using Crowned Pigeon as the body hackle (instead of heron):

Kelson noted that on the Spey, the local dressers varied the pattern by eliminating the topping, a variation with which he happened to disagree. Furthermore, he sometimes added jungle cock for ‘sides.’